Imagine if you could just stop smoking one day. Yes, just like that. This can be done with the NLP Swish Pattern.
It is an excellent NLP technique that is designed to help people get rid of bad habits, especially the ones that are addictive in nature and often hard to let go.
If you are someone who tends to overeat, the swish pattern can help you get rid of overeating. Nail-biting is also another habit that is very difficult to let go of, but with the swish pattern, you can get rid of it in some cases instantaneously.
In neuro linguistic programming, we talk about the “stuff” that our internal representations are made out of, called submodalities.
Submodalities are focused on the characteristics of our feelings, internal imagery, and sounds. This is all part of the language that our brain communicates in. To understand the construction of our feelings and thoughts, it is important to understand what our brain associates with certain feelings and habits.
What does our brain envision when we are happy? Which sounds and images pop up in our brain when we are angry? Once we get an understanding of this, we can effectively change the whole structure and association of our thoughts and feelings. The swish pattern is a very effective technique to understand and control our inner world. Once we do that we can change our habits and even our state of mind at will.
A Little Neuro Linguistic Programming History
One of the founding members of NLP Christina Hall and her life partner Peter have a central role in the development of the swish pattern. One night driving home from one of Richard Bandler’s NLP seminars, Peter told Christina how he felt a shift in his internal imagery when thinking about certain things and how it changed his state.
This fateful discussion led to the development of what we today know as the swish pattern. Christina shared this information with Bandler and they started developing a method through which people can get rid of unwanted behaviors and habits.
This revolutionary and groundbreaking method worked especially well with people who could make clear pictures in their minds and were able to clearly manipulate the size, brightness, and orientation of these images. Since its inception, it has helped hundreds and thousands of people all over the world to change their lives for the better and become the version of themselves.
What Makes It Work?
The trick here with this NLP technique is to simply realize the value of getting rid of the bad habit or behavior is worth it as it will set you on the path to becoming the person that you want to become. It may sound cliche and anecdotal but there is research and actual science behind it. Once that realization sets in, voila, the transformation happens.
Swish pattern or swishing in the simplest words is replacing the cue for a bad habit with a new self-image. It is the training of one’s mind to get rid of the bad habit by making it understand that by doing so it will help you become a better version of yourself.
This NLP technique was developed in the infancy of NLP. It is based and modeled on people who got rid of their bad habits by themselves, without any type of external intervention. When NLP developers studied these people and tried to figure out how they broke their bad habit, the most common finding of the research was that whenever they were tempted to perform their bad habit, they immediately imagined themselves being happier and better off without that habit.
For example, if a smoker had the urge to light a cigarette they would imagine themselves being much happier and not to mention healthier as a non-smoker. Having this image of themselves as non-smokers in their brain made it much easier for them to quit smoking.
NLP developers turned this finding into an actionable technique – The Swish Pattern. The idea is the same as what resonates throughout the NLP world. What worked for them can work for you as well. You just have to learn it and then teach it to your brain.
What Are The Steps Of The Swish Pattern?
There are nine basic steps that you can use to perform the swish technique.
- Identify the trigger – The first step is to find out what triggers your bad habit or unwanted behavior. It helps the process to ask yourself “what is the first thing that you can think of that sets off your bad habit or unwanted behavior?” For example, if you are looking to get rid of smoking and are asking yourself why do you feel the urge the smoke. What are the factors that make you want to light up a cigarette? Is it when you are stressed? Is it when you are around other smokers? Is there something specific like a smell or a feeling? Once you have the answer to these questions, it will become much easier for you to identify the trigger to your bad habit or unwanted behavior.
- Relate a picture with the trigger – Once you know what causes this bad habit or behavior, you will now need to get a clear picture of that trigger in your head. A literal picture. When you try to think about the trigger what image comes to your mind? For example, if you had a heated argument with a friend or your wife and you are feeling stressed out or angry, you might get a strong urge to smoke. You have to get a clear picture of the whole scenario of the trigger in your head. This will bring the trigger to life and make it a tangible thing making it easier for you to understand it.
- Find an alternative picture – This a very important step of this NLP technique. Now that you have a precise picture of the scenario that triggers your unwanted behavior or bad habit, you need to imagine yourself dealing with it in a more empowering way. Instead of smoking let’s say that you go for a long walk or go to your room and meditate for a while. The point here is to find a better solution to the trigger. Get a clear picture of what would be better and more empowering for you in that particular trigger scenario.
- Hold both the pictures in your mind – When you are clear on what would be a better alternative picture in your trigger scenario, you have to imagine the trigger picture and the alternative picture simultaneously in your mind. Try to bring the unwanted trigger picture to the forefront of your mind. Make it big and vivid. An important thing here is to try to imagine the picture as close to real-life as possible. Try to make the things in that picture look like the way they do in your everyday life. How you see them through your eyes. Once that is done, go to the alternative picture and make it as small as you can and place it on the bottom left corner of the mind’s eye. Make sure that you can see yourself in this picture.
- Performing the swish – Your eyes will be closed at this point and you will have both the pictures in your mind. The trigger or unwanted picture is big while the alternative or wanted picture is small and placed in the bottom left corner. Now comes the magic part. With a swish, you are going to switch the places of these pictures. The alternative picture will become bold and big while the unwanted trigger picture will become small and move to the bottom left corner. Now you are going to expand the alternative or desired picture right to the middle of your mind’s eye.
- Open your eyes and take a deep breath – When you do that you will clear your mind and the picture will be gone.
- Close your eyes again and bring back both pictures to where they initially were – Go back to step 5 and perform the swish again.
- Repeat Step 7 as many times as required until you are unable to get the trigger or undesirable picture back – This is a tedious process. For some people, it can take as many as 100 swishes to get rid of the trigger picture. If you follow all the steps correctly, as you do the swishes, the trigger picture will be harder and harder to get back until it will eventually completely disappear.
- Test the new habit or behavior – The final step of the swish method is a test if you have broken the bad habit or the unwanted behavior. Bring up the picture of your trigger and see what you are doing in that scenario now. If you see yourself going for a walk or meditating instead of lighting up a cigarette then you have successfully completed NLP the swish pattern.
You’ll Have To See It To Believe It
While the NLP swish pattern is highly effective and efficient, it is crucial that you feel inspired by what you see as a better version of yourself. You have to be able to imagine yourself as more happy, healthy, and in a better state without your unwanted behavior or habit. Only then you will be able to see a change.
If you are not genuinely inspired by imagining a better version of yourself without the habit or behavior that you are trying to get rid of then this whole exercise will be futile. It is important here to keep the image of yourself without the unwanted behavior or habit as real as possible. You need to feel inspired and happy when you see yourself doing better. If you are unable to do that it does not matter how many times you perform the swish, you will not be able to get results.
Another important factor to keep in mind when doing the NLP swish pattern is to carefully evaluate your initial alternative picture. Do you feel happy and healthy in it? Is it empowering to you? If not. Then you have to look at some other factors that might be stopping you from getting a clear picture. It can be a limiting belief that you might have. Is it something that has to do with the environment that you are. It is important to work all of this out before performing the NLP swish pattern if you want to get results.
When you are creating a self-image, try to keep the image as realistic as possible. If your new self-image is fantastical and removed from reality your subconscious brain will not accept it as a viable alternative. For example, if you start to picture yourself in a cape and a crown sitting on a throne as beautiful women feed you grapes, your subconscious mind will know that you are not serious and will refuse this alternative image. Unless you are really a king. Then by all means you can do that. The new self-image that you create has to be both as close to reality as possible and inspiring. Otherwise, the swish pattern will not work.
If you are looking to break a bad habit or change certain behaviors then the NLP swish method can be very helpful. It can help you restore confidence, make your anxiety go away. It really is a very powerful and effective technique. However, it is a very specific process. Make sure to follow all the steps precisely for it to work properly. If you follow it to the dot, it can have a life-changing effect on you!
